Well, only one other person, other than you, actually used the word, "spoiled," and a current student admitted that current students are indeed a part of a generation with an overwhelming sense of self-entitlement. So, there's that.
Getting students to the games and getting students to stay inside the stadium are two entirely different issues facing this football program. The distance may have something to do with it, but it is not the overwhelming reason by any stretch. Your suggestions should be implemented (as well as many of those suggested by posters on the first 4 pages), tute sweet regarding the buses and SUBOG/USG, etc., but let's not drum up easily curable justifications excuses about them for why the south end zone stands empty at halftime. After all, students are already there (why not stay) and how many kids take the buses in the first place?
Also, I don't buy that traffic is awful at 7:30 on a Saturday morning. It is certainly no worse than weekday rush hour for a basketball game in Hartford. It also would be much better than 15-25,000 cars traveling the other way on 44 and 195. If you want to make an argument on why kids don't go to games, start with the parking. Why are student paying the same amount for parking as a regular fan? How do they not have their own parking tag at a deep discount? Street parking is free for Hartford basketball games and is obviously free for games at Gampel. So in light of an on-campus stadium being unfeasible, parking at football games should be nominal, at most, for students. Also Drinking and driving is not an argument either. If you are tell me that it's because there's no designated driver yet, then students are better off staying in the stadium to sober up and not be tempted by that final free beer at the car.
Getting back to keeping students in their seats, it really is not a mystery why students leave. What is a mystery is how to address it. Students feel (and they are probably correct) that they can be better entertained elsewhere (This includes returning to their cars for one more game of beer pong before they leave.) and they are not willing to take the 5-10% chance that UConn can pull off another Pittsburgh '06. Simply because it has not happened in their academic lifetime. Here's another not so tightly held secret. It's the same reason the crowd in general leaves starting mid way through the 3rd quarter. They stay just long enough to see if UConn can score on their first second half possession. If not, many are gone.
Do the XL Center seats empty at halftime for basketball (they didn't in my year and Hartford is at least another 10 minutes further down 84)? When I was in school, they told us that the bus(es) for basketball would leave the Civic Center 15 minutes after the final buzzer. Basically enough time to get from the Ann Street side of the arena to the front entrance. So why do buses start leaving at halftime for football? Beyond that, I think it is a little unreasonable to compare the two sports. 2009-10 was a down year for Men's hoops (and thought the game had started to pass Calhoun by. Turns out Dyson quit and Robinson for, all of his athletic ability, really wasn't that good of a basketball player), but that team was sandwiched between 2 Final Four teams.
Again this is my view from 30,000 feet (And I only graduated 15 years ago).